hardline Pakistani cleric escapes Swat Valley

Albuquerque News.Net
Tuesday 17th November, 2009

The leader of the Taliban militants in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat district, hardline cleric Maulana Fazlullah, has survived the Pakistan government's military offensive, even though it was reported he had been wounded.

Fazlullah has told the BBC Urdu Service via mobile phone that he escaped to Afghanistan and now intends launching guerrilla raids against the army from there.

Pakistani officials had previously claimed that Fazlullah was wounded and surrounded in Swat, a scenic valley located some 140 km north-west of Islamabad.

Fazlullah told the BBC he was not mortally wounded as earlier reported but had safely reached Afghanistan.

The cleric launched an Islamist insurgency in Swat in mid-2007, with the aim of enforcing Islamic Sharia law, but slowly expanded his control over the adjoining areas.

Fazlullah’s fighters at one stage siezed Buner district, located less than 100 km north of Islamabad.

Thousands of Pakistani troops then moved into the area and regained control of much of the region after intense fighting.

2,000 militants and dozens of soldiers were killed in the fighting that followed.

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